Drones In India – Today & Tomorrow

Drones or “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” (UAV’s) are a technology that has been on the rise for some time now across the world.

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They are increasingly being used for consumer purposes. Also, video and photography with drones have been a significant driver for sales around the globe.

Simply speaking, the market around drones can be split into three parts: 

– Consumer applications 

– Commercial applications 

– Military applications

While the Indian Military has been using drones for quite some time now, we would like to direct the focus towards Commercial applications, as there is already much awareness about Consumer applications. 

When it comes to the size of the drone industry worldwide, the numbers projected are in the range of US$8.89 bn by the end of 2025 for the global commercial drones market, of which 50% will be in the USA, according to a source (Transparency Market Research (TMR)). Other sources indicate wildly different numbers, indicative of the uncertainty in this growth market. Therefore, it is more important to look at the enablers of future drone business. The future growth of the commercial drone market will be driven by several factors:

– Availability of commercial applications with drones

– The development of a network of drone operators

– The future evolution of regulation – this is especially true for India, where new directives have just been put in place.

Let’s have a look at each of these factors.

Availability of commercial drone applications